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How to Save Some Money When Using Fire Glass

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How To Save Some Money When Using Fire Glass

One of the more common questions we receive from people calling in on our Help Line is that they have built a fire pit, and did not fully realize just how much fire glass they are going to need to fill it. Especially when they then tell me their fire pit is 4 feet square! “Is there any way to save some money when using fire glass?”

Save Money When Using Fire Glass

Unfortunately, fire glass is not a place to cut corners when it comes to the budget. It is important for safety reasons to buy quality fire glass that is manufactured for the specific purposes of being used in fire pits and fireplaces.

Never use just any old broken glass, like wine or beer bottles. The issue can be smoke, toxic fumes, and exploding. (gas bubbles in the glass expand when heated and may cause the glass to explode!)

However, there is a very effective way to help reduce the quantity of fire glass that you require, and will work with almost all fire glass except ‘clear’ colored glass.

Using Lava Rock to keep Fire Glass costs down

Using a small or medium lava rock as a filler in the base of your fire pit can significantly reduce the amount of fire glass you require, and it is very easy to do.

Fill your fire pit tray or fireplace up to and above the burner ring with the small-sized lava rock. Then you can lay your fire glass on top of lava rock to get your desired finished look, this is not only a great way to save money when using fire glass, but also creates a better flame in your fire pit as it forces the gas to spread over a wider area as it flows up through the Lava Rock.

How Much Lava Rock do I Need?

The images below not only illustrate how to combine fire glass with a lava rock filler but also how to use lava rock with boulders or alternatively with Lava Stones. A great combination is to use a lava rock filler with Tumbled Lava Stones laid on top. Follow the fire pit burner manufacturers’ advice on the size of lava rock and the overall depth of fire media required.

Save Some Money When Using Fire Glass

First of all, do the calculation as if you were going to fill the entire tray with fire glass. You can use our Fire Glass Calculator. Let’s say the result was 50 lbs of glass needed. 

It is important to remember that this does not have to be exactly correct but make an estimate of how high the burner is in your fire pit tray. So for example let’s say the top of the burner is halfway up the height of the tray. As you already know you need 50 lbs of glass to fill the tray, now you can see you will only need half that to fill from the top of the burner to the top of the tray. So you will need about 25 lbs of fire glass.

For the filler which is replacing the other 25 lbs of glass in the base of the tray, you can halve that 25 lbs again, so you will need about 12 -13 lbs of lava rock. (This is because the volume-to-weight ratio of lava rock and fire glass is about 2:1) and the top of the burner is halfway up the depth of the tray. If the burner is higher or lower, you can adjust the respective quantities accordingly.

So the answer to “How much is Fire Glass?” when costing a fire pit may be less painful than you first thought!

I hope this article will help you save some money when using fire glass.

If you have any problems with the calculations call our Toll Free Help Line at the top of the page